Past, Present, Perfection
by Traviosita9124
Summary: Charlie finds out about one of Dani's past transgressions. Rated M. Don't own 'em, don't sue me. This is just for fun. One shot. Crews/Reese


"TIDWELL?!"

"Charlie, keep your voice down…"

"YOU SLEPT WITH TIDWELL?!"

She lunged across the elevator to clamp her hand over his mouth. Didn't he realize these things echoed? Thank God they were going down to the parking structure, not up to the bullpen. Reese suppressed a small shudder when she felt him purse his lips against her palm, remembering how they felt ghosting over the lines of her neck and the curve of her breasts…

"Charlie, I should have told you before, but--" she stuttered trying to find words that would take all of that rage out of his eyes. The last thing she needed was a scene in the middle of a parking garage, her partner screaming out all of her, their transgressions while she tried her best to not use her service weapon to silence him.

No wonder she'd always been warned against taking a co-worker as a lover.

"Charlie," she hissed to him as she felt the elevator lurch to a stop. "I'm gonna take my hand off of your mouth and you're not going to yell about this. You got me?"

She took her hand away and backed away to a respectable distance just as the doors opened to reveal the parking garage… and their boss, Tidwell himself. Shit. This was just not her day. She carefully eyed Crews as she tried to slide out past Tidwell and to her car. Maybe if she were lucky Crews would keep his mouth shut for once and…

"Hello, Captain—"

No such luck. There was never any luck.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been a perfectly innocent question on his part.

All he had wanted to know was if she had slept with anybody he knew. Crews had grown so used to the idea that Reese, his Dani, his only recent lover who'd been making usual appearances in his bed, had previously picked up only unknown men in bars that he had expected her to tell him to not be crazy, of course she there was nobody else he knew.

Instead, he gets treated to the knowledge that she had slept not only the guy in sex crimes he'd run into every once in awhile, but also with their not-exactly-ethical, shampoo-impaired boss. How could she expect him not to be upset by that? Tidwell was still their superior, was probably still lusting after her and could cause trouble for them both if he found out about the pair of them.

Charlie had meant it when he said Dani was his now. He knew and accepted that other men touched her before him; he couldn't stand the idea that one of those men was his direct superior. Did she really expect him to speak calmly about this, Zen or no Zen? And then, Captain Slickback himself made an appearance.

"Hello, Captain—"

"Crews!" she ground out at him through her teeth. He knew she was angry and doubted she'd let him touch her tonight, but he had to keep going.

"—we were just going home to—"

"CREWS!" she barked at him, reaching back into the elevator to grab him by the lapels and pull him past their boss, who all the while seemed to be more interested in their exchange than anything else.

"Sorry, Captain, she's a little aggressive this time of the—"

She pulled him closer to her body, her face inches from his own, and just within ear shot of Tidwell growled, "Crews, if you finish that sentence, I swear to God, I'll put a bullet in you right here." Seeing that look on her face, he desperately wished the floor would just up and swallow Tidwell whole. Whenever she wore that angry-frustrated-with-my-partner look, he knew he was in for a good night. A very good night.

With one last shrug for Tidwell, he obediently followed Reese to their cars.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Crews, I cannot believe you just did that in front of our boss. OUR BOSS, Crews."

"Wait a second, before I was Charlie, now I'm back to Crews? What just happened?"

"What happened," she said, her voice like ice, "is that you basically just told our boss we're fucking."

Reese saw him flinch at her harsh words. It'd been about a month since she'd described their near-nightly forays as "fucking"; he looked like he felt like they just took a major step back.

"How—"

"It was how you acted, Crews! All because of some bullshit, macho, she's-mine-not-yours impulse of yours, our boss now knows we're together in some kind of way." She jerked her door open, throwing her bag inside and fixing his gaze with her own. "All because you had to know who else might have played in your playground before you even had it. I slept with him over 8 months ago, Charlie, four months before you and I were anything more than just partners."

"We're more than 'just partners', Dani?"

"We could be, but shit like this has gotta stop, Charlie. You need to trust me when I promise I'm not seeing other men or sneaking out to bars to pick men up. Otherwise, what good is all your talk about eventual romantic things for us?"

With that, she got into her car and drove off, leaving him standing, flabbergasted, in her newly vacated spot.

~*~*~*~*~*~

He knew he'd fucked up. He'd fucked up big time, and he didn't have a clue how to go about making it up to Reese.

He could get her flowers, but she'd probably beat him over the head with them. He could get her chocolate, but he didn't even know if Dani liked chocolate. He thought there was a chance she did like it, but why tempt fate? He could always buy her something expensive, like diamonds, but that wasn't really Dani either.

After five more minutes of pacing through his kitchen, he grabbed his keys and headed towards his car.

~*~*~*~*~*~

All she wanted was to go to bed. It didn't matter that it wasn't even ten yet, it had been a hard day. The kind of day when, four months ago, she'd normally have a drink after and lose herself in some bar, but even though she was mad as hell at him, she didn't want to let Charlie down.

So, instead of pouring herself a drink, she brushed her teeth, pulled on a shitty tank and old running shorts and got ready for bed. If she slept, she wouldn't drink. If she didn't drink, it'd at least be a personal victory: she'd get through a day without using booze as a crutch.

Just as she pulled back the covers, her door bell rang.

Without even bothering to check the peep hole, she unlocked her deadbolts (she'd been using more than one ever since Rick Larson had gotten in to her home) and yanked the door open to reveal her partner, still dressed in his suit from that day, looking rumpled.

"Charlie…"

~*~*~*~*~*~

She was beautiful, even in her ratty sleeping clothes; she was the most beautiful woman he could imagine.

"Charlie…"

He couldn't stop himself and stepped over her threshold to take his face in his hands and kiss her. Kicking the door shut behind him, he broke their kiss and whispered to her, "Dani, I'm sorry for what I did today, for what I said, but I'm mostly sorry for making you think I don't trust you."

He took her in his arms again, kissing her deeply and pulling her further into her home. He turned her to press her up against the wall outside her bedroom, his fingers creeping under her tank top to find the heat of her body. He could also feel Dani's fingers as they tore his shirt out of his pants, her fingernails raking over his back as she yanked the material up over his head. Forced to go with her momentum, he lifted his arms as she flung his shirt down her hall and towards her bathroom. As quickly as he good, he reattached his hands to her hips, sliding them up to tickle her ribs as he took off her own top.

He could feel her moan as the bare skin of their chests pressed against each other. Crews made sure to keep kissing her as he began to work his fingers into the band of her cotton jogging shorts, pushing them down her legs as he grasped at warm, fit, flesh, taking her panties with the shorts.

"Lace panties with these shorts, Dani?" he teased, barely lifting his lips from her own. "Were you expecting someone?"

"Just hoping to see you."

Charlie could feel how wide his grin was as he bent down to kiss her. Quickly and desperately, they undressed each other in the hall and ducked into the bedroom.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dani awoke in the middle of the night, stiff from their previous love making, to find her partner over her and raining light kisses across her brow, cheeks and lips.

With a small groan, she stretched her legs around his hips, pulling his hips towards hers and her lips captured his. She loved how easy they were together. It was simple and good and wonderful. She was waiting to fuck it up, but she had a feeling that Charlie wouldn't let her. He wouldn't let her fail, he'd always be there to catch her and she'd always be there to catch him.

Simple.

He slid in easily, sighing into the loose tumbles of her hair that splayed across the pillow. She delighted in the press of his body, the warm mass of muscles moving in symphony above her, his pace slow and relaxed, focused more on feeling the two of them together than getting either of them to their climax.

For the first time in ages, Reese didn't feel a need to nip at his chest or neck, scratch his back to make him move faster and harder inside of her.

For the first time, Dani felt loved, cherished as Charlie, goofy, sweet, and sometimes scary, always there for her Charlie, manipulated her body and moved the two of them in concord, closer and closer to a peak. Her orgasm didn't rip out of her, didn't come as a force, but rather in a slow, rolling pass through her body, her quiet moan of satisfaction filling Charlie's mouth as he came to his own completion, shuddering over her.

No words had passed between them during the act and it seemed wrong to her, somehow, to break that particular silence now.

Instead, she settled for curling up against his chest, kissing the skin over his heart before finally drifting to sleep.

Simple.

Good.

Easy.

Perfect.


End file.
